David Dawes:
CLASS OF 1959
Oxnard High SchoolClass of 1959
Oxnard, CA
American University - BusinessClass of 1974
Washington, DC
University of Southern California - EngineeringClass of 1963
Los angeles, CA
David's Story
Oxnard High School was great and Oxnard was a great place to grow up: cruising A Street from the Blue Onion to Foster's, grunion hunting at the beach, dances in the gym. In school my best friends were Clinton Dillon, Gordon Eastwood, and DeMil Stirling and the guys that I remember the most are the guys I played with on the football team for three years (Raul Nunez, Luther Wallace, Joe Chaparro, Tommy Fort, Tommy Luna and many others). After graduating from Oxnard High School in 1959, I went to the University of Southern California and studied engineering. I was a great experience, and I was there during the exciting years of football coach John McKay. I was active in the Navy ROTC, on the drill team and color guard commander, and battalion commander. I spent a summer on destroyers out of San Diego, a summer flying (prop and jets) in Texas and assaulting the beach and hills of Camp Pendleton, and a super summer sailing from San Diego to Norfolk VA on an aircraft carrier around South America (stopping in Acapulco Mexico, Santiago Chile, Rio de Janeiro Brazil, and Trinidad). I graduated in 1963 and was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy. I was assigned to Naval Reactors, ADM Rickover's staff, in Washington D.C., which is the headquarters of the Naval Nuclear program and is an agency of the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. I served there for 42 years, six years as a Naval Officer and the remainder as a federal civil service employee and retired in...Expand for more
2005. The job consisted of overseeing and directing the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the nuclear propulsion plants in the Navy's aircraft carriers, cruisers, and submarines. I was the founder and Director of the Standard Navy Valve program, and it was a job that I loved. I met my wife, a cute little blond, Suzanne Murray, in Pittsburgh, PA while attending graduate studies in nuclear engineering. We married in 1966 and settled in Alexandria, VA (just across the river from Washington) and had three boys. They did very well in school, much better than their father. The oldest was valedictorian of his class and attended Cornell University and Duke Medical School and is a medical doctor in Santa Barbara, member of the SB SWAT team, and a medical consultant for Taser. The next son was valedictorian of his class and attended the University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, and got his PhD at Harvard University; he is a professor and program director at Macalister College in St Paul, MN. The youngest was a four-year varsity letterman in three sports, third in his class and he attended Princeton University and got a masters degree at New York University; he is an actor/comic/writer in New York City and LA. Like the salmon, I have returned to my originating place, Southern California. My wife and I have retired to Huntington Beach where we are enjoying the fun, sun, and our three granddaughters and two grandsons. Just added another granddaughter.
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